New Talktalk poll; feedback needed, good and bad

CarolAnn49

A good friend, Paul, who lives alone, put up an old school friend, Alan, for six weeks or so before Christmas, providing him with free bed and board.
After this man left, the phone bill arrived - normally averaging £45 a month, the December and January bills combined total more than £2000. Alan has phoned a long list of mobile and premium rate numbers and left Paul with a huge bill he is unable to pay. Paul is disabled and lives on benefits. He has been with TalkTalk for some years now and contacted them for help. They offered plenty of sympathy, but no help. Best of it is, there is a £100 call credit limit on the bill, which seems to make not a jot of difference. Can anyone suggest anything helpful - other than throttling Alan? He has disappeared up to Glasgow.

Donna_H

Can someone please help me before I internally combust. I really do not know where to start with my complaint about talktalk. My nightmare began on 13th November 2009 when due to the death of my mother I had to move house. I contacted TT home movers and asked for my service to be transferred to my new number and new address. Simple I would have thought. I have spent hours trying to put this letter into a complaint form as ther is no point in trying to speak to the customer services as one dept does not know what the other is doing nor can they understand you, even if they let you stay on the line long enough to complain - cut off several times after been put on hold for up to 15 minutes. In the interim I have received a bill from TT for £63.13 which they debited from my account on 04/01/10. Now this week I have received another bill for £32.14 which they say they are going to take on 26/01/10. When I rang and tried to speak to Chantel she informed me it was 1 bill for broadband and another bill for telephone line. When I disputed this she wanted to transfer me to the dreaded home mover department. I said no, no more, please cancel my service and guess what she transferred me to some unknown department that had not answered after 15 minutes. I had to hag up. WHAT!!!!! I can't take this anymore, I don't have the time or the sanity to try and get someone who understands how to deal with a complaint. Please can someone direct me to a contact who will listen, understand and act.

trinidadone

Donna_H wrote: »

Can someone please help me before I internally combust. I really do not know where to start with my complaint about talktalk. My nightmare began on 13th November 2009 when due to the death of my mother I had to move house. I contacted TT home movers and asked for my service to be transferred to my new number and new address. Simple I would have thought. I have spent hours trying to put this letter into a complaint form as ther is no point in trying to speak to the customer services as one dept does not know what the other is doing nor can they understand you, even if they let you stay on the line long enough to complain - cut off several times after been put on hold for up to 15 minutes. In the interim I have received a bill from TT for £63.13 which they debited from my account on 04/01/10. Now this week I have received another bill for £32.14 which they say they are going to take on 26/01/10. When I rang and tried to speak to Chantel she informed me it was 1 bill for broadband and another bill for telephone line. When I disputed this she wanted to transfer me to the dreaded home mover department. I said no, no more, please cancel my service and guess what she transferred me to some unknown department that had not answered after 15 minutes. I had to hag up. WHAT!!!!! I can't take this anymore, I don't have the time or the sanity to try and get someone who understands how to deal with a complaint. Please can someone direct me to a contact who will listen, understand and act.

Hi Donna and welcome to moneysavingexpert.com. sounds like you have had some problems with this company. Talk Talk has a representative which addreses problems on this site, and usually directs people to the talktalk forum to sort things out. I hope you get this sorted, good luck

TalkTalk

Hi Donna H,

Sorry to hear of your loss and the problems you have encountered with your service.

As Trinidadone says we'd need you to register and post at https://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums to look into your issues further for you. If you could register and post, I or one of my colleagues will be able to help out.

CarolAnn49, I am afraid if the calls were made from your friends landline then they would be applied to the bill and would be due for payment on the bill due date. As Customer Services have advised we can add credit limtis to accounts to prevent this happening again and bars can be added to block mobiles and premium numbers from being dialed if needed. I would recommend that your friend contacts the gentleman that made the calls and requests that he pays for the calls made on his landline.

Cheers
Emma x

toyotaclaire

I applied yesterday to talk talk for a land line and internet package after seeing they were the best and cheapest via moneysavingexpert.com.

I had the info that £30 installation was free but they said that it wasn't because I didn't have a line to transfer from any provider, so I agreed £30 installation fee as acceptable. I gave her all my address details and was told £18.50 monthly fee which was great. I was at the end of agreeing everything when she then told me the fee for installation was £59.99! I was then told it was £30 for the line installation and then £29.99 for the internet installation!! As much as I haggled that if I paid to install my line then I should qualify at least for the £30 off they were offering on internet installation but no avail. I didn't sign up!

Back to MSE.com I went, to look for the next best to call and saw the £60 off simplfydigital were offering to exactly the same with Talk Talk. Even better! So I called and we started the checks again. But to my horror he said that in my area the mimimum contract available was £33. When I asked why he explained that it was because TalkTalk weren't set up in my telephone exchange. So i finished the call and called talktalk back.

I told the chap and he checked my address and confirmed £33 was correct. Apprently Talk Talk have to pay BT for renting the line and pass £15 charge ontot he customer. SO BEWARE - PLS GET PEOPLE TO CHECK. She nearly signed me up for 2 year contract at what I was told would be £18.50 and then I would have had trouble cancelling or have to pay £33. He didn't even apologise for his colleague missinforming me! BE CAREFUL.

CarolAnn49

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

CarolAnn49, I am afraid if the calls were made from your friends landline then they would be applied to the bill and would be due for payment on the bill due date. As Customer Services have advised we can add credit limtis to accounts to prevent this happening again and bars can be added to block mobiles and premium numbers from being dialed if needed. I would recommend that your friend contacts the gentleman that made the calls and requests that he pays for the calls made on his landline.

Cheers
Emma x

Thanks, Emma, but you have rather missed the main points. The 'gentleman' who made the calls has totally denied making them, and of course they were made without Paul's permission or knowledge when he was out of the house or in bed. Also, Alan has gone off to Scotland and is unlikely to return, as it is also possible he made dodgy claims for housing benefit and skipped within days of receiving grants for moving into a rented property - being unemployed, financially challenged and having spent time in prison for GBH. I think the chance of getting money out of him is pretty low, don't you?
The main point, though is that the £100 call credit limit has BEEN ON THE ACCOUNT SINCE IT WAS OPENED and DIDN'T prevent it happening! Paul is frightened of debt and spent his savings on the first bill when it came just before Christmas. He doesn't have the money to pay the latest bill and has had to cancel his DD payment because his bank would have rejected it anyway. He would be willing to pay it in installments but talktalk won't consider that.
However, this still doesn't explain why the bill was allowed to build up to over £2000 over 2 months when there was a £100 call credit limit already in place. Perhaps you could offer an explanation, Emma.

TalkTalk

Hi CarolAnn49,

It is impossible for me to pass comment on account specifics without being able to view the details of the account. It is also against the law for me to discuss account specifics with a thrid party. We can look into the issue for your friend if he is able to register and post at https://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums. If he could post in the customer services section we will be able to take a look into the account.

Cheers
Emma x

CarolAnn49

I'll get him to register next time he's round here. Unfortunately, his own phone and internet access have been cut off...... He can't pay the bill, you know!

Donna_H

I am not sure exactly what the purpose of posting complaints on this forum is for. I did receieve a very quick response from Talk Talk asking me to register on their forum before they could help. Thats been it........ How long does it take or how vocal do you have to get

trinidadone

Donna_H wrote: »

I am not sure exactly what the purpose of posting complaints on this forum is for. I did receieve a very quick response from Talk Talk asking me to register on their forum before they could help. Thats been it........ How long does it take or how vocal do you have to get

hi donna,

did you register with the talk talk forum? if you did I can only only draw on my own experiences, and usually you will receive a response at least within 24 hours on the talktalk forum